WEBVTT 1 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:36.439 Welcome back to the Path Went Chile. From part two of our three part 2 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:40.920 series of episodes about the disappearance of Melanie Flynn. Robin, do you want 3 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:44.719 to catch everyone up on what we were discussing last week? Well, Melanie 4 00:00:44.759 --> 00:00:48.719 Flynn was twenty four years ago old. She hailed from a prominent family in 5 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:52.960 Lexican, Kentucky. Her father had been a state senator, and in January 6 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.560 of nineteen seventy seven, she left her job. She told her family she 7 00:00:56.600 --> 00:00:59.840 was going to be home for dinner, but she never arrived, and shortly 8 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:03.799 after they would find her abandoned car at an apartment complex where she had once 9 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:07.359 lived, but there was no trace of her anywhere, so they reported her 10 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:11.040 missing and a police officer from the Lexington PD went down to Florida and checked 11 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:15.760 in on some sightings that Melanie had a legend Leaven seen in a local hotel, 12 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:21.159 and apparently the witnesses provided so many specific details about this woman that the 13 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:25.680 detective was certain that she was actually Melanie and closed the investigation. He was 14 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:27.719 certain that she had run off on her own and was alive somewhere, even 15 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:33.400 though he never actually found this woman and confirmed she actually was Melanie but of 16 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:37.760 course this scenario got to destroyed a few weeks later when they found Melanie's purse 17 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:42.200 and the Kentucky River not far from where she originally disappeared, So of course 18 00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:46.079 this poked a major hole in the theory that she had taken off voluntarily and 19 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:49.560 gone back to Florida. And it wasn't long before a local narcotics cop named 20 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:55.480 Bill Canan claimed that Melanie had worked for him once as a drug informant after 21 00:01:55.560 --> 00:02:00.319 she was busted for marijuanica possession, and started pushing forward to scenario that she 22 00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:04.200 ran off because she was fearful of being labeled as a snitch. Of course, 23 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:07.640 this took her family by surprise, and of course a lot of people 24 00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:12.000 all assume that Melanie was actually involved in a relationship with Bill Knan, but 25 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:15.520 he denied this because it turned out he was actually married to another woman. 26 00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:19.800 And there was another guy on the narcotic squad named True Thornton who was also 27 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:23.639 rumored to possibly be dating Melanie, but after he resigned from the Lexington PD, 28 00:02:23.800 --> 00:02:29.159 he got involved in major drug trafficking for an organization known as the Company 29 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:34.159 that would fly in large quantities of cocaine and marijuana from Colombia into the United 30 00:02:34.199 --> 00:02:37.960 States. And at the end of our last episode we recounted a crazy incident 31 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:43.120 from nineteen eighty five where Thornton was being pursued by the authorities while bringing a 32 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:46.240 large shipment of cocaine into the US. So he attempted to parachute out with 33 00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:51.240 eighty pounds of cocaine trapped to his body, but the parachute do an open, 34 00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:54.280 so he was killed in a fatal free fall and crashed into a driving 35 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:59.319 way of a residence in Tennessee. And of course this is when we concluded 36 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:02.599 the episode of the story of the Infamous Cocaine Bear, because Shorton had dropped 37 00:03:02.599 --> 00:03:07.599 part of his coucation and into a national forest and a bear just happened to 38 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:12.080 come across it and sampled the product and died of a fatal overdose. So 39 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:15.840 the bear would eventually be stuffed by a taxidermist and immortalized, and he's currently 40 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:21.199 on display under the nickname Pablo Escobar. But now we're going to get back 41 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:23.879 into the illogical part of this story and start talking more about Melanie Flynn. 42 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:30.199 This case is so frustrating because you have this young girl who has a really 43 00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:36.680 close relationship with her family, and she goes missing, and a detective actually 44 00:03:36.680 --> 00:03:39.360 makes a trip down to Florida, comes back and reports it. He's not 45 00:03:39.479 --> 00:03:45.560 just convinced, but he's closing the case because he believes so deeply that Melanie 46 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:51.319 is alive based on these conversations he's had with quote eyewitnesses. I don't know 47 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:54.240 how much I actually believe he did much of an investigation down in Florida, 48 00:03:54.280 --> 00:04:00.360 but I find it very difficult to say without her picture, with out an 49 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:06.520 idea, without someone having an actual connection to Melanie, that you would close 50 00:04:06.759 --> 00:04:12.000 the case back off of it some maybe, but they closed it. And 51 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:17.120 then we start to learn that two detectives that Melanie had a relationship with are 52 00:04:17.240 --> 00:04:21.199 kind of involved in this scam. Right they're fired from their jobs. They 53 00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:25.839 run a major cocaine ring, or at least one of them does. And 54 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:28.920 so that starts to raise a lot of hair on the back of my neck. 55 00:04:28.959 --> 00:04:32.160 That says, what happened to Melanie? She had this connection with people 56 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:35.040 who thought they were above the law to do drugs, you know, to 57 00:04:35.079 --> 00:04:39.279 do drugs and deal drugs. Did they think they were also above the law 58 00:04:39.319 --> 00:04:43.879 and could kill Melanie? That's certainly what it sounds like, doesn't it. 59 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:46.560 I mean, I don't have a lot of faith in the fact that somebody 60 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:51.160 like Thornton and Canan are the types of people who would be averse to doing 61 00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:56.319 that, because we know absolutely that somebody like Thornton, who's supposed to be 62 00:04:56.439 --> 00:05:00.120 upholding the letter of the law, leaves law enforcements you become like a major 63 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:03.959 drug trafficker. I mean, you think that there would be the ethical implications 64 00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:09.879 there, But he's very easily crossing this line into criminality, and it looks 65 00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:14.199 like there's a possibility that Canan was too, So I wouldn't think it would 66 00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:17.759 be the most bizarre thing if these two had conspired and they were responsible for 67 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:23.759 what happened to Melanie anyway. In our last episode, we discussed a book 68 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:28.600 that reporters Sally Denton published in nineteen eighty nine titled The blue Grass Conspiracy, 69 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:32.439 An Inside Story of power, greed, drugs and Murder. The book covered 70 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:38.480 the rampant corruption which took place in Kentucky during the nineteen eighties, involving a 71 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:43.759 multimillion dollar drug smuggling ring called The Company who brought large quantities of cocaine and 72 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:48.399 marijuana from Columbia into the United States. The blue Grass Conspiracy spent a couple 73 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:55.240 of chapters focusing on Melanie Flint's disappearance under possible connections to the company. The 74 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:59.360 case would return to the spotlight in April of nineteen ninety three, when Bill 75 00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:03.480 Canan was arrested on a series of federal charges, including possession of cocaine with 76 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:09.519 the intent to sell, intimidating witnesses, carrying a fake badge to identify himself 77 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:15.000 as a federal drug officer, and other various firearm charges. At Canan's Federal 78 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:19.319 Attention hearing, a former Lexington police officer named George Umstad, who was serving 79 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:25.199 a thirty six months sentence on a federal drug conviction, testified that in nineteen 80 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:30.480 eighty four, Drew Thornton had told him that Canan killed Melanie Flynn quote because 81 00:06:30.519 --> 00:06:35.480 he loved her. Umstead also claimed that following the publication of the Bluegrass Conspiracy, 82 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:40.879 he personally asked Canan if he killed Melanie, and Canan just sort of 83 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:44.720 smiled, shook his head and nodded as if to say yes. The hearing 84 00:06:44.759 --> 00:06:49.079 would also feature testimony from an FBI agent who described his interactions with a woman 85 00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:54.279 named Bonnie Kelly, who was currently serving a life sentence for the murder of 86 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:59.680 Eugene Barry, a Florida state attorney that had been investigating the company. According 87 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:03.360 to the agent, Kelly had once told him that she overheard a conversation between 88 00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:09.560 Canaan and Thornton in which they referred to Melanie's disappearance and stated that, quote, 89 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.040 they would never find her, all right, So y'all help me with 90 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:19.120 this? Umstead is a basically becomes a jailhouse informat I think so, yeah, 91 00:07:19.160 --> 00:07:24.879 Because he was already in prison on other federal drug charges, and here 92 00:07:24.920 --> 00:07:28.040 he is coming out of nowhere to say that he had heard Canan and Thornton 93 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:31.279 make these incriminating remarks about Melanie. Now, he would have a potential to 94 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:35.240 have heard that because he was a Lexington police officer. But do we know 95 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:39.879 if he was getting any kind of special deals? Was he getting an offer 96 00:07:39.959 --> 00:07:43.560 by coming forward with this information? Because I'm always very leary about someone who's 97 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:46.639 currently serving time and shows up in the courtroom test fine against somebody, not 98 00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:49.720 that I can see. I mean, he was only serving thirty six months, 99 00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:54.160 which is three years, which really isn't all that much for like a 100 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:57.879 drug charge. So I think he really just came forward because he wanted to 101 00:07:57.879 --> 00:08:01.000 share this story because he wasn't going to have to do that much time in 102 00:08:01.079 --> 00:08:03.360 jail anyway. I'm sure it made him very popular. Police officers are always 103 00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:09.920 popular in prison. And then when you also snitch on top of that, 104 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:11.160 that's exactly what I'm seeking, Jules. It was like, three years is 105 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:13.560 a hell of a long time for anyone, much less if you're a law 106 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:18.199 enforcement agent. But now you're also a snitch. So it's like Nike, 107 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:22.439 So yeah, um said, it's not doing himself any favors. But then 108 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:24.920 you also have this FBI agent, and are you telling me she's also in 109 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:28.600 prison. I'm not the FBI agent, the woman named Bonnie Kelly. The 110 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:31.360 FBI agent was the person who worked on the case and helped to put her 111 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:35.519 in prison. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I was going, 112 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:39.080 my god, there's now an FBI agent in prison too now, But okay, 113 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:43.159 So so this FBI agent actually comes forward and she's able to give information 114 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:48.799 as well, saying that Listen, I've overheard these conversations and it's very very 115 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:52.799 disturbing. Because you do have the law enforcement agent who's serving time, which 116 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:56.639 again I'm a little questionable about. But then you also have this testimony that's 117 00:08:56.759 --> 00:09:01.279 that confirms they'll never find her, right, this idea that yes, we 118 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:03.840 killed her, and not only did we kill her, we dispose of her 119 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:07.159 in a way that no one will ever find her. So the day after 120 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:11.200 Kennan's attention hearing, the Lexington Police Chief Larry Walsh appeared as a guest on 121 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:16.840 a local morning radio show and stated that the department were working on Melanie's case, 122 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:20.679 but everyone was taken by complete surprise when Melanie's mother, Ella Ritchie, 123 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:24.879 planned made an unexpected phone call to the show and spoke live on the air, 124 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:30.360 marking the first time she had spoken publicly about her daughter's case in sixteen 125 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:35.399 years. Ella said that her family had done their own independent investigation into Melanie's 126 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:39.399 disappearance and gave their records about the information they obtained to John Bizac. As 127 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:43.759 you recall, Bizac was the original lead detective on the case, and he 128 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:46.360 was the same person who claimed that Melanie was alive in Florida, but he 129 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:52.080 had since been promoted to captain. Ella complained that the Lexington PDE never did 130 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:56.320 anything with the new information they provided and later told her that the records had 131 00:09:56.360 --> 00:10:00.639 been stolen. She found it surprising that Chief Walsh had public who has stated 132 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:03.879 that they were still working on the case, since the department had not made 133 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:07.960 any attempt to contact the Flynn family in years. I have so much respect 134 00:10:09.080 --> 00:10:13.600 for Ella Richie Flynn, who literally calls up the radio show and says, 135 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:16.840 huh, oh, my gosh, that Chiva police is on there talking about 136 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:20.960 my daughter's case. And it's almost like this bold testimony of saying, like, 137 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:24.879 oh wow, is her case open? And the mom kind of unloads 138 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:28.559 this idea of like, listen, we called you with information. No one 139 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:31.799 has reached out to us. And I can feel her resentment and her anger 140 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:35.919 of saying, don't you dare publicly use us as a public relations stint to 141 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:39.360 say how hard worker you know, working you guys are, when no, 142 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:43.120 you have not taken care of our family or our daughter in any way. 143 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:48.519 I applaud her so very much, badass. I love that too, Like 144 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:52.679 she stays quiet for those sixteen years, but when they go and they take 145 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:54.879 it to that level, and it's like you see it with law enforcement a 146 00:10:54.919 --> 00:10:58.240 lot of times you hear it from families where they go in front of the 147 00:10:58.279 --> 00:11:01.159 camera and they say that they're doing all of this work on this case, 148 00:11:01.159 --> 00:11:05.039 and the families like they have yet to reach out to us, they don't 149 00:11:05.080 --> 00:11:07.559 answer our calls, but yet they're trying to see credit for all this work 150 00:11:07.559 --> 00:11:11.919 that they've done, which they may or may not be doing in some of 151 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:15.919 those other cases. But it seems pretty clear here that they're not doing the 152 00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:18.360 work that they're taking the credit for. Oh exactly. Like I have seen 153 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:22.360 this situation in a number of other cold cases where the victims family is not 154 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:26.240 being communicated with by law enforcement. But this might be the only time when 155 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:30.720 one of the victims families have managed to call a live show and chew up 156 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:33.600 the police cheap on the air. And I wish there was footage of this 157 00:11:33.679 --> 00:11:35.360 on YouTube. I searched for it, but it would have been quite a 158 00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:41.879 sight to see. So around this same time period, Ralph Frost also appeared 159 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:48.080 on a local TV show to express his belief that the investigation into Melanie's disappearance 160 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:50.960 was hamstrung because of fears about Bill Canan. I keep wanting to say, 161 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:54.080 Bill Clinton, I keep do you know because of the boys on the track. 162 00:11:54.200 --> 00:11:56.440 I keep saying that, I'm like, it's Bill Clinton, Isn't it 163 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:05.559 believe Bill? About Bill Canand and Drew Thornton. Bill Canand was ultimately indicted 164 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:07.840 by a grand jury, and when he went on trial, he was convicted 165 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:13.519 on all charges against him. He received a sentence of seventeen years and eight 166 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:16.919 months in federal prison before he was paroled in September two thousand and eight. 167 00:12:18.759 --> 00:12:22.200 In July twenty nineteen, the case made the news again when the Lexington PD 168 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:28.759 announced they were conducting a new search for Melanie's body by performing an excavation of 169 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:33.240 a former campground called Murphy's Landing, which is located in Mercer County along the 170 00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:39.799 Kentucky River. The dig was set in motion when the authorities received information from 171 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:43.120 an elderly person who lived in another state well. This person's name has never 172 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:48.639 been disclosed publicly. He was described as being a key figure in the investigation 173 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:54.759 who specifically mentioned a septicle. This information would be corroborated when the Kentucky State 174 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:58.679 Police received a tip from another unnamed elderly man who was on his deathbed and 175 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:03.440 so reportedly mentioned a septic hole. So these would be men who were what 176 00:13:03.679 --> 00:13:07.559 in their forties, you know, like when all this happened, so around 177 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:11.919 the same agency. These two detectives. Do we think that they could possibly 178 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:15.720 be law enforcement or do you think that they're simply two older men who had 179 00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:20.759 information about the septic hole that caused you know, interest likes. Those are 180 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:24.279 two specific and two random of tips to not be related to each other. 181 00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:28.919 But do we think they were law enforcement? I think there is a good 182 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:31.679 possibility. And we're going to mention that a few figures in this case would 183 00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:37.240 wind up passing away in twenty twenty, And they mentioned that at least one 184 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:41.639 of these tipsters was on his deathbed. So they've never specifically like said who 185 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:43.559 these people were, but you can kind of make some guesses about who they 186 00:13:43.559 --> 00:13:48.559 could have been. And I do think that they probably had key information about 187 00:13:48.559 --> 00:13:52.919 this case, especially because they took the information pretty seriously, right, And 188 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:56.120 I think if it is an ex law enforcement agent and they're on their deathbed, 189 00:13:56.360 --> 00:14:00.200 you might take it a little more seriously. I mean, death bed 190 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:05.279 confessions oftentimes they can be accurate, but we've seen plenty of times for people 191 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:09.559 on their deathbeds throughout misinformation or they continue to deny what they clearly have done. 192 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:13.759 So I don't think just because someone's on their death that it's always accurate. 193 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:18.080 But I do think that their information would have been strengthened if they were 194 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:22.240 law enforcement agents in the past. And just the fact that, like the 195 00:14:22.360 --> 00:14:26.320 second tipster, like he probably wouldn't have had any knowledge that the first tipster 196 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:31.240 had already disclosed this detail about the septical So the fact that he said the 197 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:35.879 exact same thing, I'm sure made the police take them so seriously. And 198 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.480 sure enough, police did find a septic tank on the property during their search 199 00:14:39.799 --> 00:14:43.399 that after draining its contents, they found nothing, and it cannot even be 200 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:46.639 established if the septic tank had been in operation during the time period Melanie went 201 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:52.840 missing. No evidence was found during the excavation, but it did prompt investigators 202 00:14:52.840 --> 00:14:56.720 to reinterview Bill Canan, who continued to deny any involvement in Melanie's disappearance. 203 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:03.799 However, electing to police Lieutenant Albert Johnson would publicly state quote, we left 204 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:07.879 the interview believing that he did not know the location of her body. Well, 205 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:11.080 Kenned would not get the opportunity to provide any further information because on March 206 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:15.519 the eleven, the twenty twenty. He died at the age of seventy four. 207 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.600 Sadly, while both the Melanie's parents, Bobby and Ella Richie Flynn, 208 00:15:18.600 --> 00:15:22.279 were still alive at the time my original Trail Went Cold episode came out, 209 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:28.000 they both passed away last year at the age of ninety five after seventy six 210 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:31.919 years of marriage. Bobby died on September the twenty second, two and twenty 211 00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:35.559 two, while Ella died four months later on December of the twenty first. 212 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:39.200 So after more than four decades, there's still no conclusive answers about what actually 213 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:43.759 happened to Melanie Flynn. So I guess you could say the path went Chile. 214 00:15:46.039 --> 00:15:50.600 That's incredibly heartbreaking. I mean, you have this couple who lives ninety 215 00:15:50.600 --> 00:15:54.720 five years, which is this magical celebration together, right, but they also 216 00:15:54.600 --> 00:15:58.759 had as part of the key part of their marriage that their baby went missing, 217 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:03.600 and they were never able to get answers. And in this case, 218 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:07.759 one of the really traumatic things is that there are like almost every decade, 219 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:12.000 there's this new kind of investigation and new energy towards the case. As as 220 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:18.440 needed as that is and as much as a parent would be begging for attention. 221 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:22.480 In this case, those lulls and then these really high levels of attention 222 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:26.600 would cause so much trauma within their family, within their marriage. I just 223 00:16:26.759 --> 00:16:32.480 can't imagine living this life of looking at your husband every night and saying, 224 00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:36.120 I wonder where she is, Like I wonder what happened to her? And 225 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:40.240 that was a question every single day they woke up with. It's heartbreaking, 226 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:45.759 and you know I was, I don't know, I just lost for words 227 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:49.000 of like what kind of experience this poor little family had, where they worked 228 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:53.639 so hard, they served their state, They were a really great family, 229 00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:59.480 and no one seemed to really pay Melanie much attention. One bright spot I 230 00:16:59.519 --> 00:17:02.919 think is it least they had each other almost right up until the end. 231 00:17:03.320 --> 00:17:07.279 I think that it's sweet and like heartwarming in a way that they passed within 232 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:11.039 four months of each other. But the darker side is what you just said, 233 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:12.920 Ash, that they never knew what happened to Melanie, and they never 234 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:17.079 got to see justice in her case, and they never got to bury her 235 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:19.440 body or to cremate her body, whatever they would have chosen to do. 236 00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:23.759 That right was taken from them by whomever killed her. And that is just 237 00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:29.440 so sad. But it is unique because often in these cases we see family 238 00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:33.640 members and parents of individuals that are either missing or deceased and it's unsolved, 239 00:17:33.720 --> 00:17:38.720 and the family tends to die at these premature ages. Here we see advanced 240 00:17:38.759 --> 00:17:42.880 ages of ninety five. So I really hope that they got to have some 241 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:48.519 joy in their lives in their older years. Oh yeah, like they Looking 242 00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:51.839 at their obituaries, it sounded like they lived pretty incredible lives. They were 243 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:56.079 very well liked by everyone in the community, and of course seventy six years 244 00:17:56.119 --> 00:17:59.000 of marriage. It was pretty incredible that not only would their marriage last that 245 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:02.079 long, but they would both lived to very old ages and die around the 246 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:04.079 same time. So it is a shame that they led these great lives but 247 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:07.599 had to have this black mark of having their daughter go missing and not getting 248 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:11.359 inclusive answers about what happened. I mean, you can only imagine like twenty 249 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:15.799 nineteen when they were searching through the septic tanks on the property, like they 250 00:18:15.799 --> 00:18:18.200 were still alive at that point, and I wonder if they were thinking to 251 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:22.000 themselves, oh, maybe we will finally still get answers about Melanie and get 252 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:26.480 a remains while we're still alive. But once again it went nowhere, and 253 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:29.960 it's pretty heartbreaking to think that they had to live that long without finding out 254 00:18:29.960 --> 00:18:33.519 the truth. To either of you think of this is possible that Melanie's body 255 00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:37.960 was in that septic tank and then maybe, like Canan or Thornton decided that, 256 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:41.880 hey, maybe too many people know about this, or maybe putting a 257 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:45.039 body in a septic tank isn't the smartest thing, so maybe we'd better move 258 00:18:45.079 --> 00:18:49.400 her to another location. Yeah, it's certainly possible because obviously, like if 259 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:52.759 we have these tipsters coming forward to mention this detail, that means a lot 260 00:18:52.839 --> 00:18:56.440 of people knew she was buried there, so they may have gotten to the 261 00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:59.319 point that, oh, we better move her because one of these days someone 262 00:18:59.400 --> 00:19:03.000 might rat on Stella romil and these remains are so it would not surprise me 263 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:04.200 if they had been there at some point. Do you, either of you 264 00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:08.079 have any experience with septic tanks? No, last time I worked on a 265 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:11.279 septic tank. No. I was just about to ask, like, is 266 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:15.359 there any way that her body could have been? Like? Do they empty 267 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:18.880 these and her body could have been just sledged off with other stuff? Is 268 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:22.200 there chemicals that went in there that could have eaten away part of her body. 269 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:25.279 I mean, like, is that possible. I don't know. I 270 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:29.799 don't know what they put in septic tanks, but it smells like straight poo. 271 00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:33.759 I remember when I went to My only experience with septic tanks is I 272 00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:37.599 went to Promises in Malibu for rehab and they had a septic system. Like 273 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:41.880 in Malibu and California, they have septic tanks in a lot of places. 274 00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:47.000 And this was like nine years ago, so maybe that's changed, but it 275 00:19:47.079 --> 00:19:51.319 was vile, Like let me tell you, waking up every day to the 276 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:55.920 smell of septic it was just so awful, Like if anyone's ever got on 277 00:19:55.960 --> 00:20:00.440 a houseboat and after like those four days and it's like the feces has been 278 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:04.720 collecting. That's what it's like. But there's people that come in the empty 279 00:20:04.759 --> 00:20:10.440 these septic tanks. It doesn't just like stay forever. It needs to be 280 00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:14.359 empty. So the idea that there'd be a body left in there doesn't seem 281 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:18.079 like the best place because potentially those chemicals could have eaten away her body or 282 00:20:18.119 --> 00:20:22.880 they could have preserved it. I don't know. Yeah, And like I 283 00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:26.160 said, we couldn't even be certain if the septic tank was around in that 284 00:20:26.200 --> 00:20:29.960 location in nineteen seventy seven, So they're not sure yet if it's any relevance 285 00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:33.720 to the case. So when I put together my original episode for the trail 286 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:37.279 would call two and a half years ago, one of the biggest challenges was 287 00:20:37.319 --> 00:20:41.200 that the disappearance of Melanie Flynn was ultimately just the tip of the iceberg and 288 00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:45.640 the Mammoth's true crime story known as the Bluegrass Conspiracy. We've already made multiple 289 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:51.480 references to the book by Sally Denton and how she pretty much uses Melanie's disappearance 290 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:55.839 as the opening hook during her first few chapters before she starts delving into the 291 00:20:55.839 --> 00:21:00.960 massive conspiracies involving drug smuggling and the organization as the Company. Since a lot 292 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:06.000 of this activity took place years after Melanie went missing, we don't want to 293 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:10.039 get too bogged down in this material because you could probably do a long form, 294 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:15.240 multi episode podcast to share the entire story of the Bluegrass Conspiracy. It's 295 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:18.680 similar to our lengthy series on The Boys on the Tracks, where there was 296 00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:22.599 just so much side material involving conspiracy theories and drug trafficking that we had to 297 00:21:22.599 --> 00:21:26.279 figure out how much of this material was actually relevant to the featured case. 298 00:21:27.119 --> 00:21:32.480 Well, the story of the Bluegrass Conspiracy is definitely relevant to Melanie's case since 299 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:36.319 she was known to be associated with a number of shady characters involved in this 300 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:40.680 conspiracy, and one of the most prominent theories is that she was murdered because 301 00:21:40.680 --> 00:21:44.480 she knew too much. However, I should mention that even if it isn't 302 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:48.599 directly connected to Melanie's disappearance, I still had to share the story about the 303 00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:52.559 infamous Cocaine Bear. And as a side note, at the time I recorded 304 00:21:52.599 --> 00:21:56.160 My Trail Went Cold episode, they had not yet announced that a Cocaine Bear 305 00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:59.759 movie was being made, so you could imagine my delight when I first heard 306 00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:03.440 the was about it. Oh my gosh, I love your delight. Right, 307 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:07.519 this is like how fun. Ever, all of us who are listening 308 00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:11.319 to this podcast or on this podcast, we like to use adjectives like you're 309 00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:17.319 gonna love this case. It's super exciting. This is a fun one because 310 00:22:17.400 --> 00:22:22.480 it's just the way our true crime minds work. But I'm beyond belief that 311 00:22:22.519 --> 00:22:26.839 I have never heard of the Cocaine Bear, the Pablo Esca bear, if 312 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:30.440 you will, in this case. But Melanie is tied to that bear because 313 00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:36.000 the detective, our former detective who then ran the company, he jumped out 314 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.599 of the plane with that cocaine on him. So it is not a far 315 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:44.799 fetch Like certain cases we talk about potential law enforcement conspiracies, but this one, 316 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:48.480 Melanie literally has a direct tie to two people doing prison time or who 317 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:52.000 are dead as a result of their criminal behavior as a law enforcement agents. 318 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:56.720 So it's shocking. He could have been her like ex lover, I mean, 319 00:22:56.799 --> 00:23:00.279 not boyfriend, but if they went on a couple of dates. We 320 00:23:00.279 --> 00:23:03.960 don't know if they established a physical relationship, but it did seem like they're 321 00:23:03.960 --> 00:23:07.519 likely with something there. So if you've got essentially like an ex boyfriend or 322 00:23:07.640 --> 00:23:11.839 love interest jumping out of this plane's who used to you know, be a 323 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:17.519 law enforcement officer and now he's running the company and is a drug trafficker and 324 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:21.799 he ends up, you know, deceased on somebody's driveway with a bunch of 325 00:23:21.799 --> 00:23:25.359 cocaine pack to him, and you know, the rest that he dumped into 326 00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:29.599 the forest ends up resulting in the death of this poor bear. So yeah, 327 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:32.880 I think that it is connected and it is important to talk about it 328 00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:36.799 and it's like even though yeah, he had like such a karmic death, 329 00:23:36.839 --> 00:23:40.119 like falling out of the plane and crashing because his parachute weren't open. I 330 00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:41.920 guess the downside to it is that he may have been one of the people 331 00:23:41.960 --> 00:23:45.240 who knew the truth about what happened to Melanie, but he's no longer around 332 00:23:45.240 --> 00:23:48.920 to share it. I don't think he would have ever shared it anyways. 333 00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:52.200 He doesn't really strike me as the type of guy that would have been forthcoming 334 00:23:52.279 --> 00:23:56.319 with like the evil deeds that he's done. He just like stepped right into 335 00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:00.960 drug trafficking with such ease. I mean he had to have been involved with 336 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:06.079 a company in some capacity prior to be able to just step in in like 337 00:24:06.119 --> 00:24:12.599 a boss. Roll like what like he's like, hesse, that's it's crazy. 338 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:18.640 So here's a brief summary of how the drug smuggling organization known as The 339 00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:23.000 Company worked. Drew Thornton was definitely the mastermind, but his closest partner was 340 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:26.880 Bradley Bryant, a long time friend of his whom he'd known since they served 341 00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:32.599 together in the military. The other key figure was Henry Vance, another friend 342 00:24:32.599 --> 00:24:36.920 of Thornton's who had worked with him on the Lexington Police Department's narcotic squad, 343 00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:41.240 but while working for the Fayette County Sheriff's office, Vance lost his job after 344 00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:47.400 he forged the sheriff's name on a purchase order for two dozen forty four Magnum 345 00:24:47.440 --> 00:24:51.480 revolvers. In spite of this, Vance wound up getting a job with a 346 00:24:51.559 --> 00:24:56.839 Kentucky state legislature and he even worked on the staff for Governor John Young Brown 347 00:24:56.200 --> 00:25:00.480 Junior. Because he had a job on the inside. Vance's key role was 348 00:25:00.519 --> 00:25:06.839 obtaining information about law enforcement's investigation into the company and feeding it to Thornton, 349 00:25:07.160 --> 00:25:11.759 for which Vance received a large cut of the profits. We've previously mentioned how 350 00:25:11.799 --> 00:25:15.880 Thornton was killed after a fatal free fall out of the plane. But Bradley 351 00:25:15.880 --> 00:25:19.200 Bryant's drug smuggling career came to an end in nineteen eighty one when he was 352 00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:25.799 arrested for attempting to sell a large quantity of marijuana to some undercover DA agents, 353 00:25:26.359 --> 00:25:30.720 for which he received a fifteen year prison sentence. So we just keep 354 00:25:30.759 --> 00:25:33.440 adding characters to this story. I mean, you have the company which Drew 355 00:25:33.480 --> 00:25:37.599 Thornton was the head of. You have Bradley Bryant, who was in the 356 00:25:37.640 --> 00:25:42.960 military with him. So someone else who you expect to have this moral compass, 357 00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:48.880 Henry Vance, who also worked for the Lexington Police Department's narcotic squad and 358 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:55.240 despite having a criminal background, gets to work for the legislature and then become 359 00:25:55.240 --> 00:26:00.279 an informant for the company. Like this sounds as if we're reading in some 360 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.519 crime fiction, white male privilege at its finest, Like this guy does the 361 00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:10.680 worst crap and then he just basically gets promoted by getting this plum job somewhere 362 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:15.279 else where he's just spying for a drug organization like way to go? Like 363 00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:18.279 what was the screening process where you hired him to work for the governor? 364 00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:22.559 Like he had forged a sheriff's name, which is the type of offense that 365 00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:26.119 should get you banned from public service, and then he gets a more high 366 00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:30.440 profile job. Have you were raised? What were you doing with all of 367 00:26:30.440 --> 00:26:33.160 those guns? Anyways? I know, yeah, we never found out the 368 00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:37.440 backstory of that, But why do you need two dozen forty four magnums? 369 00:26:38.440 --> 00:26:42.279 So as for Henry Vance, you might recall us mentioning that the Flynn family 370 00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:48.079 had asked a Kentucky State Police investigator, need Ralph Ross, to reopen Melanie's 371 00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:52.720 case. Ross eventually lost his job thereafter setting up an illegal wire tap on 372 00:26:52.759 --> 00:26:56.519 someone, and that person just happened to be Henry Vance. You might remember 373 00:26:56.599 --> 00:27:00.640 us briefly mentioning a woman named Bonnie Kelly, who is currently serving a life 374 00:27:00.680 --> 00:27:06.440 sentence for the murder of a Florida State attorney named Eugene Barry. What happened 375 00:27:06.519 --> 00:27:10.480 is that Kelly's husband had recently been arrested, and since he was involved with 376 00:27:10.519 --> 00:27:14.240 the company, Vance was fearful he was going to make a deal and share 377 00:27:14.279 --> 00:27:18.680 everything he knew with the authorities. So this prompt Advance to hire Kelly to 378 00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:22.119 assassinate Barry before this could happen. For his role in the crime, Vance 379 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:26.359 received a fifteen year present sentence for conspiracy to commit murder, though he would 380 00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:30.319 be released after serving less than nine of those years for good behavior. But 381 00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:36.279 here's an interesting piece of poetic justice. We already mentioned that Bill Kinand passed 382 00:27:36.279 --> 00:27:40.759 away on March the eleventh, twenty twenty, but Henry Vance also wound up 383 00:27:40.839 --> 00:27:44.599 dying only three years later on March the fourteenth, at the age of seventy 384 00:27:44.599 --> 00:27:48.240 seven. While we don't sympathize with these individuals. The downside is that if 385 00:27:48.279 --> 00:27:52.759 either of them had knowledge about what happened to Melanie, they both took that 386 00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:57.759 secret to their grace. Unbelievable. We're gaining so many people involved at this 387 00:27:57.839 --> 00:28:02.920 point that it's hard to keep track. But you know, Ross was fired 388 00:28:03.119 --> 00:28:07.559 for you said, the wire tap on who Henry Vance, who was a 389 00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:11.160 crop So it's like he was doing a wire tap on someone who worked for 390 00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:15.079 the governor's office and was feeding intel to the company about the drug investigations. 391 00:28:15.119 --> 00:28:18.759 So that's someone you want a wiretap. That's exactly right. But also I 392 00:28:18.759 --> 00:28:25.640 find it very difficult that Ross gets fired from his job for this wire tap 393 00:28:25.799 --> 00:28:29.839 and you have someone like Vance, who has repeatedly broken the law, is 394 00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:33.559 directly tied to Melanie's disappearance, and has a lot of power. So was 395 00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:40.799 Ross fired because Vance and Melanie's connection. So if you want an idea of 396 00:28:40.880 --> 00:28:45.920 what the company was like, we'd recommend watching the twenty seventeen movie American Maid, 397 00:28:45.319 --> 00:28:49.240 which started Tom Cruise as Barry Seal, a pilot who, much like 398 00:28:49.319 --> 00:28:53.880 Drew Thorne, flew a large quantity of drugs from Columbia into the United States. 399 00:28:55.480 --> 00:28:59.799 And Whiley's story is a completely separate one American Maid will give you an 400 00:28:59.799 --> 00:29:03.880 idea of how rampant these drugs smuggling operations were during the nineteen eighties, and 401 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:08.119 the release of that film and Cocaine Bear show that there's obviously a demand for 402 00:29:08.160 --> 00:29:12.559 these stories in Hollywood. Anyway, if you want more information about this topic 403 00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:18.480 in general, I'd recommend reading The Bluegrass Conspiracy like Robin did. But for 404 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:22.480 now, we're going to put the rest of this episode's focus on Melanie Flynn. 405 00:29:22.839 --> 00:29:26.079 Melanie was definitely an interesting individual, and even though it sounds like she 406 00:29:26.200 --> 00:29:30.599 was capable of leading a pretty wild partying lifestyle at times, which could prove 407 00:29:30.680 --> 00:29:34.680 problematic when you're the daughter of a former state senator, it sounds like she 408 00:29:34.759 --> 00:29:40.000 always remained very close to her family and had no issues living with her parents 409 00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:42.920 at age twenty four. At the time she went missing, Melanie was still 410 00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:47.920 holding down a respectable job as a secretary, so I think her parents held 411 00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:51.079 the attitude that she was a grown adult who was free to live her life 412 00:29:51.079 --> 00:29:56.119 how she wanted. This probably explains why they were not overly concerned during the 413 00:29:56.119 --> 00:29:59.640 first few days she was missing, even though Melanie had failed to show up 414 00:29:59.680 --> 00:30:03.359 as promise for a family dinner. Those are the details that really bother me. 415 00:30:03.359 --> 00:30:07.319 Melanie specifically told her dad, I'm going to my psychiatry appointment and then 416 00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:11.599 I will be home for family dinner with the book of coaches that you needed 417 00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:18.000 from me. And so for me, it's overwhelming to think that they wouldn't 418 00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:21.880 go wait a minute, she gave us her word, and like they said 419 00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:25.160 earlier, if she was going to travel, at least she would have checked 420 00:30:25.160 --> 00:30:27.920 in with us. So I find it very difficult to say, hey, 421 00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:33.000 Melanie doesn't show up. She also likely missed work and other things the next 422 00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:37.000 couple of days, and then what is it. A couple of weeks later, 423 00:30:37.319 --> 00:30:41.480 here's our purse that washes up, her cars found abandoned, And so 424 00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:45.400 it's very clear within a couple of weeks Melanie did not voluntarily leave on her 425 00:30:45.400 --> 00:30:48.759 own. But I think from that first night, her family, even though 426 00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:52.279 they said it wouldn't have been crazy for her not to show up, surely 427 00:30:52.319 --> 00:30:56.759 they thought she made a promise to us about tonight, And I feel like 428 00:30:56.799 --> 00:31:00.519 she would have communicated any different plans with us if those were going to change, 429 00:31:00.279 --> 00:31:03.880 because, as I mentioned it, if I've have you seen American Maid. 430 00:31:03.119 --> 00:31:07.039 Yes, I have not. Do you remember that scene where Tom Cruise 431 00:31:07.079 --> 00:31:11.119 crash lances playing in the suburban neighborhood and he's covered with cocaine and then climbs 432 00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:15.000 out and asks a kid to borrow his bicycle so he can get away from 433 00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:18.359 the police. Yes, I remember that. Yeah, I don't think that 434 00:31:18.440 --> 00:31:21.720 really happened, but I think it was heavily inspired by Drew Thornton's death, 435 00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:25.559 because even though his plane crashed into a forest and he crashed into a suburban 436 00:31:25.559 --> 00:31:29.160 neighborhood while parachuting, I saw a lot of parallels between that scene and what 437 00:31:29.240 --> 00:31:34.039 happened to Thornton. So I don't know if Jules and Ashley are baseball fans, 438 00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:37.279 but I certainly am. So I was quite fascinating to look. I 439 00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:41.319 was quite fascinated to learn that Melanie's brother, Doug Flynn, was a player 440 00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:45.079 on the best team in the major leagues at that time. During the nineteen 441 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:49.200 seventies, the Cincinnati Reds were nicknamed the Big Red Machine. Had had so 442 00:31:49.319 --> 00:31:52.880 much talent on their team that you can understand why Doug spent most of his 443 00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.759 time on the bench as a backup utility in fielder, but Hey, he 444 00:31:56.839 --> 00:32:00.680 got to be on the roster when they won two conceptetive World Series championships. 445 00:32:01.400 --> 00:32:06.960 Dog was often interviewed abou sister's case and newspaper articles in nineteen seventy seven, 446 00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:10.079 but you can tell that the ordeal had a negative effect on his baseball career, 447 00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:14.839 as he did not play well that season. In fact, in June 448 00:32:14.839 --> 00:32:17.160 of that year, Doug was one of four players traded from the Reds to 449 00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:21.799 the New York Mets for one of the greatest pitchers of all time, Tom 450 00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:24.680 Sieber. However, Dogs played with the Mets did improve, and he wound 451 00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:29.759 up winning a Gold Glove Award for his outstanding play at second base during the 452 00:32:29.839 --> 00:32:35.240 nineteen eighty season. Doug retired in nineteen eighty five after appearing in one three 453 00:32:35.359 --> 00:32:38.359 hundred and eight major League games, and during the last decade he has worked 454 00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:43.720 part time as a radio and television broadcaster with the Reds. But as much 455 00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:46.160 as I'd like to keep talking about baseball, this is a true crime podcast, 456 00:32:46.279 --> 00:32:52.079 So let's start talking about Melanie again. Okay, so I love baseball, 457 00:32:52.160 --> 00:32:55.000 but I hate the Reds only because one of my exes loved the Reds, 458 00:32:55.039 --> 00:33:00.319 and so now I root against them. Sorry Reds fans, but it's 459 00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:02.599 like a pride I take. It's the only thing left to hold on too, 460 00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:07.240 So I'm always like, oh, go anyone but the Reds. But 461 00:33:07.279 --> 00:33:10.119 I grew up as a huge Braves fan like every other American kid, and 462 00:33:10.200 --> 00:33:15.160 then started spacing out my favoritism of different teams. But there is nothing like 463 00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:21.079 sitting at a live baseball game and enjoying the entire atmosphere. I think it's 464 00:33:21.079 --> 00:33:23.640 one of the coolest experiences of all time. But yes, back to Melanie 465 00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:29.079 Well, there have been reports that Melanie seemed more nervous than usual prior to 466 00:33:29.119 --> 00:33:31.960 her disappearance. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. On the actual day she 467 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:36.799 went missing, Melanie told her parents that she was planning to join them at 468 00:33:36.839 --> 00:33:40.200 home for dinner after seeing her psychiatrist, but since she never showed up in 469 00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:45.440 her appointment, it's obvious that something happened shortly after she drove away from her 470 00:33:45.480 --> 00:33:49.960 workplace. We do have a couple of other eyewitness sightings of Melanie later that 471 00:33:50.119 --> 00:33:53.480 day, which include her speaking with someone in a blue van at the intersection 472 00:33:53.599 --> 00:33:57.920 just down the street from her office, as well as her being seen with 473 00:33:57.960 --> 00:34:01.079 an unidentified man at a restaurant at night. I'm willing to chalk up the 474 00:34:01.160 --> 00:34:06.200 restaurant fighting to mistaken identity, But if the fighting of her with the blue 475 00:34:06.279 --> 00:34:09.159 van is accurate, I would be interested to know if the driver compelled her 476 00:34:09.159 --> 00:34:13.639 to pull over and speak to them, and if that ultimately paved the way 477 00:34:13.639 --> 00:34:19.119 for her disappearance. I'm more likely to believe that intersections stop with that blue 478 00:34:19.199 --> 00:34:22.000 van, because remember, it's on the same street where she worked. The 479 00:34:22.199 --> 00:34:27.079 diner not so much. She told Dad, I'll be home for dinner. 480 00:34:27.119 --> 00:34:30.760 Why would she end up in this diner. I think the more probable one 481 00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:34.119 is that stopped car, where she might have been talking to someone in that 482 00:34:34.239 --> 00:34:37.159 van. I've been trying to find out. I have no indication if Bill 483 00:34:37.239 --> 00:34:40.760 Canann or Drew Thornton ever drove a blue van or had access to a blue 484 00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:44.880 van during that time period. But if this is a case where someone is 485 00:34:44.920 --> 00:34:46.800 stocky Melanie, they probably thought, well, this is where she worked, 486 00:34:46.920 --> 00:34:50.920 this is the usual time she gets off, so they very well could have 487 00:34:50.920 --> 00:34:53.840 been waiting for her on that street and then pull over, and that's when 488 00:34:53.840 --> 00:34:58.800 she may have been abducted or something happened that led to her disappearance. I 489 00:34:58.920 --> 00:35:01.599 bet those two, with all their sketchy connections, had access to a van, 490 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:06.480 but I doubt we would ever be able to like concretely find that detail 491 00:35:06.519 --> 00:35:08.159 out. Yeah, I mean, for Abab, we know they could have 492 00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:12.519 just borrowed it from an informant or something like that, and they had no 493 00:35:12.559 --> 00:35:15.440 ties to them. So from what I've heard, the one consistent thing about 494 00:35:15.480 --> 00:35:20.400 Melanie is that she had a particularly close relationship with her mother, so it 495 00:35:20.440 --> 00:35:22.079 would have been very out of character for her not to show up for a 496 00:35:22.119 --> 00:35:27.519 family dinner without at least calling. Yes, Melanie did have a wild side. 497 00:35:27.559 --> 00:35:30.880 It would often take off and travel throughout the country, but she would 498 00:35:30.880 --> 00:35:32.760 still always make sure to phone her mother to let her know where she was. 499 00:35:34.559 --> 00:35:37.840 This is why, even though there were reported sightings to suggest that Melanie 500 00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:40.360 traveled down to Florida, her family did not believe she would have done so 501 00:35:40.440 --> 00:35:45.719 without contacting them. Indeed, even if those sightings were accurate, it's unclear 502 00:35:45.800 --> 00:35:50.239 how Melanie would have made the trip to Florida to begin with, since her 503 00:35:50.280 --> 00:35:53.000 abandoned car was found in the parking lot of an apartment complex and a rather 504 00:35:53.199 --> 00:35:59.079 rough part of Lexington. Since some of the witnesses in Daytona Beach reported seeing 505 00:35:59.119 --> 00:36:02.719 Melanie in then he have some female friends. Then yes, theoretically she could 506 00:36:02.719 --> 00:36:07.679 have gotten a ride with someone. But what detail which does not make sense 507 00:36:07.039 --> 00:36:12.039 is that Melanie's leather jacket was left behind in her vehicle, even though the 508 00:36:12.119 --> 00:36:15.480 weather in Lexington was incredibly cold at the time she went missing. She also 509 00:36:15.559 --> 00:36:20.119 left a prepack suitcase of clothes in her car, as well as all of 510 00:36:20.119 --> 00:36:23.159 her personal possessions at home, and since she never touched her bank account, 511 00:36:23.400 --> 00:36:28.840 it's never been explained how she managed to travel to Daytona Beach and spend three 512 00:36:28.880 --> 00:36:34.039 months in a hotel with nothing more than twelve dollars in her pocket. She 513 00:36:34.079 --> 00:36:38.440 didn't know, he didn't. You know, I feel so sorry for the 514 00:36:38.519 --> 00:36:42.239 family because throughout this, you know, you've mentioned things like, well, 515 00:36:42.519 --> 00:36:45.199 they said maybe it was amnesia, they said maybe she did go on this 516 00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:50.920 trip. But I feel like the reason that would enter someone's mind because then 517 00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:54.960 that provides hope that she's still alive, right that if this, then there's 518 00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:00.679 still hope that we can get her back. It's very very clear she didn't 519 00:37:00.760 --> 00:37:05.360 call when she left her jacket. When her purse washes up when that car 520 00:37:05.440 --> 00:37:12.679 is abandoned and there's really no communication with anybody. That Melanie ran into somebody, 521 00:37:12.800 --> 00:37:16.280 whether she knew them or not, and everything went awry. Because to 522 00:37:16.400 --> 00:37:21.320 me, there's just no chance that Melanie would blatantly tell her dad I'll be 523 00:37:21.400 --> 00:37:25.079 home with information you need from me tonight, telling her southern mother I'm coming 524 00:37:25.079 --> 00:37:28.880 home for dinner, which is a big no note to miss that, and 525 00:37:28.920 --> 00:37:34.239 then never communicating again. I just I don't think it's a possibility. One 526 00:37:34.360 --> 00:37:37.079 detail Robin and I find curious, and we think you will too, Ash 527 00:37:37.280 --> 00:37:42.719 is how Melanie's car was left at an apartment complex which Melanie had lived in 528 00:37:42.800 --> 00:37:46.039 years earlier, even though she had no real connection to the location by nineteen 529 00:37:46.119 --> 00:37:51.400 seventy seven. This is a bit reminiscent of the case Robin Wentz covered on 530 00:37:51.440 --> 00:37:54.960 the Trail Went Cold about the unsolved two thousand disappearance of Joey Lynn off It, 531 00:37:55.280 --> 00:38:00.400 whose abandoned car was also found in the parking lot of an apartments where 532 00:38:00.440 --> 00:38:04.880 she'd once lived years earlier. In both these cases, you get the impression 533 00:38:04.880 --> 00:38:08.039 that the car may have been planted at their respective locations by someone who had 534 00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:13.119 knowledge of the victim's past and wanted to give off the false impression. Did 535 00:38:13.159 --> 00:38:17.000 the victim park the vehicle there themselves. The eventual discovery of Melanie's purse in 536 00:38:17.039 --> 00:38:22.719 the Kentucky River makes it even more difficult to believe that she took off voluntarily. 537 00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:27.199 Even if Melanie didn't want the purse, it makes no sense for her 538 00:38:27.239 --> 00:38:30.679 to throw away the antihistory and she was taking no way. She had two 539 00:38:30.760 --> 00:38:36.519 prescription pills in that purse and so she needed those on a at least a 540 00:38:36.639 --> 00:38:39.519 routine basis. No way she would throw the purse with those pills away. 541 00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:44.840 And I do really find it interesting this location where she used to live, 542 00:38:44.840 --> 00:38:47.519 at this apartment complex where her car was abandoned, but there's no link to 543 00:38:47.559 --> 00:38:52.559 any current residence there. I initially leaned towards is this a high drug area 544 00:38:52.599 --> 00:38:55.679 where they were going to dump her car? But then you told me her 545 00:38:55.800 --> 00:39:00.039 keys weren't inside, which means no way. If rims are trying to dump 546 00:39:00.039 --> 00:39:04.159 a car in a high crime spot, they'll do so with the keys in 547 00:39:04.159 --> 00:39:07.400 the ignition so that someone will steal it. Take it. Apart all of 548 00:39:07.440 --> 00:39:10.000 those things here, it seems like they very purposely, like you said, 549 00:39:10.639 --> 00:39:15.840 went hey, Melanie's story includes his apartment complex. It would make sense for 550 00:39:15.920 --> 00:39:20.079 her to be here and they dumped the car. I don't know the exact 551 00:39:20.119 --> 00:39:22.480 timeline of when Melanie was living there, but I hide it interesting that she 552 00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:28.000 first got involved with Bill Canan and supposedly in late nineteen seventy four or early 553 00:39:28.119 --> 00:39:31.480 nineteen seventy five, and it's possible that she was living there during that time 554 00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:35.800 period. So it's like if she had any meetings with Canan get togethers at 555 00:39:35.800 --> 00:39:38.199 the apartment, then he would have had knowledge that she lived there and probably 556 00:39:38.440 --> 00:39:42.159 had this idea, Hey, if we want to abandon her car, just 557 00:39:42.280 --> 00:39:45.039 leave it at this place where she used to live in order to throw off 558 00:39:45.039 --> 00:39:49.039 the investigation. That sounds like the mentality of something a corrupt cop would do. 559 00:39:49.800 --> 00:39:52.039 It's not very smart though, It's like she had a connection to it 560 00:39:52.119 --> 00:39:57.079 so many years ago. What was she just going back there and like reminiscing 561 00:39:57.400 --> 00:40:00.159 and dropping off her car and then taking off of her own accord, we'll 562 00:40:00.239 --> 00:40:04.679 throwing her purse in the river. Like even if you want to get rid 563 00:40:04.719 --> 00:40:07.920 of your purse, you would give it to somebody else and give it to 564 00:40:07.920 --> 00:40:12.039 a second hand shop A friend. What woman walks up to a river and 565 00:40:12.119 --> 00:40:15.000 it's like, I'm sick of this purse and all my prescriptions, Let me 566 00:40:15.079 --> 00:40:20.599 toss it in the river. None. None, I mean, it would 567 00:40:20.599 --> 00:40:22.360 have made more sense to just leave the purse in the car and make it 568 00:40:22.360 --> 00:40:24.880 look like she left it behind there. But it's like, oh, she's 569 00:40:24.920 --> 00:40:28.800 going to abandon a car and then make a special trip to the Kentucky River 570 00:40:28.960 --> 00:40:31.519 a couple miles out of town just to toss her person's side doesn't make any 571 00:40:31.519 --> 00:40:36.320 sense. So now I think would be a good time to bring an end 572 00:40:36.320 --> 00:40:39.679 to Part two, and next week we're going to discuss the troubling investigation into 573 00:40:39.679 --> 00:40:44.599 the sightings of Melanie in Daytona Beach. Join us again next week for the 574 00:40:44.679 --> 00:40:50.639 concluding chapter of our three part series about the disappearance of Melanie Flynn. Robin, 575 00:40:50.719 --> 00:40:52.880 do you want to tell us a little bit about the Trail Went Cold 576 00:40:52.880 --> 00:40:57.079 Patreon? Yes, the Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three years now, 577 00:40:57.119 --> 00:41:00.880 and we offer the standard bonus feature is like early ad free episodes, 578 00:41:00.960 --> 00:41:06.440 and I also send out stickers and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs 579 00:41:06.519 --> 00:41:09.440 up with us on Patreon. If you join our five dollar tier Tier two. 580 00:41:09.880 --> 00:41:15.719 We also offer monthly bonus episodes in which I talk about cases which are 581 00:41:15.719 --> 00:41:19.880 not featured on the Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to Patreon 582 00:41:20.159 --> 00:41:22.559 and if you join our highest tier, tier three, the ten dollar Tier. 583 00:41:23.079 --> 00:41:28.840 One of the features we offer is a audio commentary track over classic episodes 584 00:41:28.920 --> 00:41:32.400 of UNSAWD Mysteries, where you can download an audio file and then boot up 585 00:41:32.440 --> 00:41:37.480 the original UNSAWD Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it with my 586 00:41:37.559 --> 00:41:43.079 audio commentary playing in the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about 587 00:41:43.119 --> 00:41:46.440 the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very first episode that 588 00:41:46.519 --> 00:41:51.800 I did a commentary track over was the episode featuring this case. So if 589 00:41:51.840 --> 00:41:54.880 you want to download a commentary track in which I make more smartass remarks about 590 00:41:54.960 --> 00:41:59.639 jul Kaylor than be sure to join Tier three. So I want to let 591 00:41:59.719 --> 00:42:01.880 you know a little bit about the Jewels and Ashley. Patreon, so there's 592 00:42:01.920 --> 00:42:06.800 early ad free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our Path Went 593 00:42:06.880 --> 00:42:09.440 Chili minis, which are always over an hour, so they're not very many, 594 00:42:09.519 --> 00:42:13.480 but they're just too short to turn into a series, and we're really 595 00:42:13.559 --> 00:42:16.360 enjoying doing those, so we hope you'll check out those patreons will link them 596 00:42:16.360 --> 00:42:20.519 in the show notes. So I want to thank you all for listening, 597 00:42:20.599 --> 00:42:23.159 and any chance you have to share us on social media with a friend or 598 00:42:23.239 --> 00:42:27.320 to rate and review is greatly appreciate it. You can email us at the 599 00:42:27.320 --> 00:42:30.199 path Went Chili at gmail dot com. You can reach us on Twitter at 600 00:42:30.199 --> 00:42:35.000 the Pathwin. So until next time, be sure to bundle up because cold 601 00:42:35.039 --> 00:42:38.199 trails and chili pass call for warm clothing. Music by Paul Rich from the 602 00:42:38.239 --> 00:42:39.880 podcast Cold Callers Comedy